A Room of My Own...

I have always wanted a room of my own. A place decorated to my taste, filled with things I love. My home reflects me everywhere but I also keep Tommy in mind when I decorate. I tone it down so he will be comfortable in our home. We buy what we both like. That is the way it should be. In a room of my own I would be surrounded by reds, yellows, burnt orange,greens and browns. The colors of Tuscany would be my shades of choice.

Years ago I read Virginia Woolf's book "A Room of Her Own". It is a book of essays written about life and all the complexities that go with life if you are a woman. One of her quotes that stuck in my mind is,"A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction." I liked this quote before I ever put a pen to paper and began to write. If women are to have time for themselves, they have to take it, sometimes almost by force. I never had time for myself until I turned 60 and retired. I put my family first and I have no regrets about that. I would do it again in a heart beat and love the adventure all over again.

After retiring,my time was my own. Everything that had been placed on the back burner of my life now had full reign to step forward and be heard. I am glad to say it ripped, roared, ranted and cajoled  me to the place I am now. I write, paint and enjoy life on my own terms. Tommy shares these feeling with me. Our motto concerning life now is "If not now...when?"

Seven weeks ago we began to build me a room of my own. We enclosed a patio that we no longer used. We thought the project would take a week to complete. We were so wrong. It took seven weeks, 3 fights and lots of laughs, oops and forgiveness to get this room done. I love it. It is everything I ever wanted and then some. It is me!!

The siding isn't on it yet. Tommy and Matthew are putting it on Monday. I am out of the building business...per Tommy's request and my answered prayer. We may tackle a bird house in the future...the very far away future.

Below are some pictures of our adventure from beginning to end.

All we had to do was fill in the patio using the roof, concrete floors and corner post that were already there. The north wall and sliding glass doors were already installed.  However, the patio drops an inch every ten feet. It was not made to be enclosed. It is now!! But it fought us all the way until the last nail was in place.  I was not much help to Tommy. In fact, I was in his way most of the time. However, like he says, "He couldn't have done it without me." That is debatable.

We also had to dig up the meanest, biggest rose bush in the world. We tried to save her but the lady stuck us every chance she got. So one hot afternoon when we had endured all of her pricks and thorns that we could take...we dug her up. Put her in a huge bucket and drug her out of our sight. I checked on her this morning. She is alive, well and growing in that darn bucket! Now I have to find a new home for her.

                 

Week five it began to take shape and I knew the end was in sight.  We still had to put the paneling on the walls and ceiling. We started with the ceiling. I really thought one of us might kill the other before this job was done. Here is where the bodies would have been buried:)
             

As luck would have it, we used the 'unused graves' to fill in the holes in our driveway:) It always helps to have a plan B.

After painting, I moved into my room. It is everything I love. 

I am surrounded by light,flowers, music, and memories of people I loved but are no longer here. I have Grandma's curtains to cover my shelves. A look I have loved since I was a little girl. It is out of style but it is me for sure.

This is the south side and over looks the back yard and our woods.         

I have several hummingbird feeders placed at my windows. They were the first things I put up. My art supplies are hidden for now behind the curtains. Soon they will be in plain sight along with a table resting behind the bench Mama gave me when she moved back to Kentucky. This will be a working room. Right now it smells like fresh paint but over the next few months it will smell like apple cinnamon. It will smell like home.

I really like this little nook. I took part of my door and turned it into a trellis, for some of my plants to climb. Hanging from the ceiling are supposed to be Chinese lanterns I bought in Florida. I can only find one right now. It is the red one and is battery operated. It gives a soft glow at night. I will find the other lantern's sometime when I am looking for something else.

Tommy and I built this table to hold my canvas. I also wanted a place to put my miniature palm trees. I have quotes from facebook on the back of the table.

I wrote a blog back in the early Spring about a house on the outskirts of Fulton that planted palm trees all around their house and how odd they looked in Missouri. It wasn't a month later, I saw these in the store and had to have them. They are ornamental and will stay in the house...but still I am always having to eat my words. I have said this many times 'my favorite food should be shoe leather.'

Here is the old rocking chair from FSH. I enjoy sitting in that old chair. The stories it could tell if it could talk.

I have sea shells from Florida and California and a rock from Alaska. A 175 year old tile from a roof in New Orleans. Driftwood from the Redwoods and the Pacific ocean.  There are also lots of small lights in and among my treasures. I have bottles of sand and ocean water from every place we have been. Mamamae's presence is there too. Her vinegar bottle reflects the light on a shelf.  Tommy's elk horns are finally on the wall. I intend to frame some of his hunting photos and place them on that wall.

This is the end of the photos and the beginning of a new phase in my life. I finally have a room of my own thanks to Tommy. I absolutely love it and him for all his hard work.